Printing machinery



Dec. 4, 1928.

PRINTING MACHINERY Filed Jan. 10, 1928 Patented Dec. 4, 1928.

UNITED S TATES PATENT OFFICE.

PRINTING MACHINERY.

Application filed January 10, 1928, Serial No. 245,741, and in Great Britain January 6,1927.

This invention is for improvements in or relating to printing machinery and more particularly to a printing machine employing intaglio' engraved rollers, and has for its object the provision of, a machine which will enable amulti-coloured impression to be imparted to a travelling web of material without the possibility ofthe ink of one colour impression contaminating the ink of the next'succeeding ink bath.

7 It has been found that with printing machines employing intaglio engraved rollers the ink of one colour impression before it is fully dried becomes deposited upon the printing roller of the next colour impression, so that after a long run the gradual accumulation of a series ofvdeposits upon the said roller contaminates the ink bath of that roller with the result that all the colours with the exception of the first, become gradually changed and lose their clearness and in some cases the colour becomes completely altered.

Various devices have been proposed for removing the un-dried ink of one impression from the web rior to the web engaging with the next printing roller, but it has been found that all these devices have their defects, and that it is only possible to print by the intaglio process when the machine is travelling at a comparatively low speed.

It has been found, for example with a machine in which the web is run at a linear speed of approximately 200-feet per minute, that at least 12 feet is required between the succeeding printing rollers to enable the ink of one impression to be thoroughly dried before the web engages with the next print ing roller, and it will be appreciated that with a minimum distance ofthis amount between successive printing units it is impossible to feed the web of paper in a straight .line through the machine, due to the fact that the machine would become excessivein length in the case where two or three colours are to be printed, V

It is an object of thepresent invention to provide means for printing simultaneously multi-eoloured impressions upon a travelling web of material so that the ink of one impression will be thoroughly dried before the web engages with the next printing unit.

The present invention'consists of a multicoloured intaglio printing machine wherein a web of printing material drawn from a reel is controlled between the first and last printing unit so as to follow a circuitous path constant in direction, clockwise or anticlockwise) around the axis of the reel. v

Further, the present invention consists of a machine forimprinting multicoloured impressions upon a travelling. web of material wherein the web is drawn from a reel around a series of guide rollers or the like, arranged to compel the web to follow a staggered or (for example,

tortuous path through the machine and" printing rollers, located at intervals along the path ofthe web, and adapted to imprint "a series of coloured impressions upon one side of the web, the arrangement being such that between the first and thelast printing rollers the guide rollers engage with only the L n-printed side of the web and the printmountinga'reel of paper 1, above the bed 2 of the machine so that the reel is capable of rotating about a horizontal spindle 3'carried upon standards 4 mounted on the bed of the machine. p Mounted to one 1 side of the reel 1 isa cleaning gear 5 arrangedto receive the web 7 and clean the sameprior to the web receiving the first colour impression. From the cleaning gearb the web is carried over a guideroller 6 situated above the said the reel 1, whereafter the web '7 is carried in. a horizontal direction to the opposite side ofthe reel 1 and passes between a pressure roller 8 anda printing roller9, where receives its first colour impresslon, An nk duct 22 and furnishing roller 23 are provided beneath the printing roller to supply ink thereto. The web is thereafter around a guide roller 10 backwardly in a horizontal direction above t-he horizontal carried cleaning gear and above and to one side of Y portion hereinbefore referred to, around a guide roller 11, located on the same side of the reel as the cleaning gear and downwardly to a guide roller 12 and thereafter to a 'second similarly constructed printing unit 13 located below the said reel and to one sidethereof.

For the purposes of thisinvention itis to be understood that the web when it substantially complete circuits about the reel, the Web moving in each circuit in the same direction, and a plurality of printing units disposed at different levels in a vertical plane and spaced along the Web, each unit being located in a separate circuit of the path of the web, whereby the Web is constrained to follow a circuitous path between adjacent units for permitting the ink of one impression to dry before the next-impression is made, said guide rollers being disposed for engagement With the unprinted side of the Web, and an ink supplying duct located beneath each printing unit.

In testimony whereof We hereunto afiix our signatures.

WALTER EVERETT MOLINSQ OYRIL BEST. 

